I'm so sorry. I feel the same way about it that you do. Last winter DH thought it was hilarious because I basically pretended he hadn't said a word if the sentence included the s word. I'm worried it's not too far away for us already. It seems like just last week it was too hot to go out mid-day and today I had to send DD to grandma's in long pants and a hoodie. :(

I always wanted to avoid Disney princess mania. I wasn't completely against them, I'd just seen obsessed princess everything girls and didn't want to go there. I actually wanted to avoid most licensed stuff. And I planned on waiting to introduce most Disney movies til I felt she was more mature. But she goes to my MIL's every other Friday and has sleepovers once every month or two. MIL and SIL started showing her all the movies and getting her hooked without my knowledge. And they seriously encourage it, not just passive acceptance. They get her tons of princess junk. So I now have the Disney princess obsessed 4yo with the suitcase, dolls, shoes, costumes, dresses, shirts, pj's, books (Disney books are horrible!!), fashion toys, games... It bugs me, but it's not something I'm going to put my foot down on and take away. She also sees the movies waaay too often. Sadly even from me. I had a really rough pregnancy and to get through she watched a full length movie (at least) nearly every day and I stopped trying to dictate which ones. That one I have since put my foot down on. I think she's only seen one princess movie since DD2 was born (11 weeks).

I don't recommend reading this thread while holding a baby that is FINALLY asleep who has been teething and cranky all day. Said baby may not like being shaken up from her holder being unable to suppress a laugh. Typed while nursing. Again. :/

I'm not sure how to answer. We each get $40 a month in a (virtual) personal account to spend on whatever we want. But $30 of that (for each of us) goes to our data plans on our phones. We can't afford to have them just because, so it's out of our fun money. My other $10 goes to my Signing Time Academy dues (though that might change soon). So I don't ever get "little extras". Books are purchased with gift cards from holidays, I only buy necessary clothing, and anything else that comes up that I want goes on a wish list for Christmas/birthday. So would that be $0, $30, or $40? (oh and that's monthly, so weekly....$0 or $6-10?)

I had a tubal and my headaches have been much worse since. I used to get a couple migraines a year and now I'm getting them often and at least a bad headache every day. But to be fair, they think it's possible they gave me a spinal leak. So mine could be caused from that. It just hasn't presented *quite* like a spinal leak should so we're not sure.

I generally get on while nursing, so even though there's plenty of things that need done, I don't have to feel guilty for not doing them at the moment! :D

I've also been looking into trying gluten-free. We haven't decided for sure yet if it's the route we want to try but we need to do something soon. It's starting to affect our relationship, too. We just got back from CA yesterday and I think it may have been the most frustrating day of my life. I know anyone watching probably assumed she's a completely undisciplined child. Her obedience level was at zero and impulsivity at a ten. Days like that just end with us all frustrated and unhappy with each other. Lately it's made me worry about our decision to homeschool. It's something very important to me, but I fear for my sanity.

I'm fairly certain my 4yo DD has ADHD. I have ADD so I'm somewhat familiar with what it looks like. She is in constant motion. She has zero impulse control. She commands attention with loud singing and dancing around if the focus is not on her. She climbs on everything and hangs upside down and swings and jumps all over the place. She is a thrill seeker and could not get enough of rides like space mountain when we were in Disneyland. She can't focus on an instruction for more than a few seconds. We have to tell her the same things over and over even over short periods of time (such as "don't kick my seat" easily a dozen times in a five minute car ride) She is very bright but often can't answer a simple question because she's moved on before you finish asking it. I could go on and on! ETA: in the time it took me to write that, she fell on her head from hanging upside down off the side of the couch, found a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry and ran from daddy trying to get them from her, eating several in the process, made an obsticle course of our luggage, picked out a movie, found another snack, and got into our school stuff. I'm starting to realize why I'm so exhausted all the time lol.

My first thought was 5 or more. I asked DH and he said 10+. But he grew up around much bigger families than I did. I had* one sibling and my parents are each one of three. Their siblings each had 0-3 kids. MIL is 1 of 14 and FIL was one of 9. Most of those siblings went on to have at least 3 or 4, usually more, though DH is only one of two. *"had" because when I was 14 my parents split and remarried so now I have 7 siblings: 1 full, 4 step, and 2 half. But it's never felt large as we're all spread out and no more than 4 have ever lived together.

I guess I'm spoiled on this one. DH goes out of his way to take extra care of me when I'm sick. He even offers to come home if he's able to. One time my mom took off and came over (I was unable to care for DD sick that time though.) When I'm sick he takes over as soon as he gets home and sends me to bed. I was sick a couple weeks ago and DD let me take an hour and a half nap with the baby. (I was only snoozing and resting, I still knew what she was up to.) When DH got home he dropped me off at the dr and took the girls shopping then sent me to lie down with the baby when we got home while he and DD made dinner and picked up my meds.

We saw it from Disney! Well, California Adventure. Poor DH was so excited for it and waiting but it was running late. They said they'd announce it but either they didn't or we didn't hear it. He was in the restroom with DD when it went by. It was very low!

I've been using a page protector and dry erase markers for math and critical thinking. I have her write in HWT, kumon, and DEL. I don't know if I'll always keep her from writing in the math wb, but the one I got this year I knew might be too easy. I'd rather save it for number 2 if DD1 is going to fly through it in a few weeks.

Thank you so much! I'm so excited for these! DD has recently started really enjoying listening to audio books. We've played them before and she's just "eh", but we just finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and she asked for it every day at lunch. Personally I can't wait for the ones read by Jim Dale, he's my favorite :D

I think I stopped NIP around 18 months with DD. i think I stopped for my sake more than for it being an "in public" thing. By that age she didn't NEED to nurse right away and often was doing major acrobatics and was easily distracted. It just became a lot more of a pain to stop what I was doing to nurse while out and she didn't ride in the carriers too often by then. So I made her wait til we got home or at least to the car just for practicality. ETA: I should say that's when I stopped *regularly NIP. I wouldn't make her wait if it seemed she really needed it or if we were out all day.

Race car drivers also have restraints to keep their head back against the seat. Once a child fits a booster and is mature enough to sit correctly, there is no evidence that a 5 point harness is any safER than a booster. Still safe, but not safer than a properly used booster.

My 4 yo is in a Diono Radian RXT. It rf to 45lbs and she's only 35 but she is forward now. It will harness her until 80 lbs or until she is too tall. She's tall but all legs so we've got a while. I will harness her to at least 6 and then it will depend on maturity. She's forward in a True Fit in DH's car, it will go to 65lbs. In grandma's car she is in a MyRide which will also go to 65 lbs forward facing. But she is still rf in that one. For a child not tall enough to skip the booster but with no head support I would want a high back. Some of them require that there is support behind it and some do not.

Do you still have the frontier? Depending on your vehicle and year you may be able to have a tether anchor retrofitted. I can check for you if you want, just tell me the make, model, and year.

Yes, I fully believe in rear facing. DD turned 4 in June and went forward facing in July. She does still fit rf, but we drive a two door car and baby's seat had to go in. She's asking to go back rf, though, so I'm teaching her to buckle herself in and will turn her around. I'll still be double checking her work for some time but that will be easier to do from an odd angle than fully buckling her. oh and she's forward in DH's car because it's outgrown and rf in grandma's car. This is not true. Rear facing has been shown to be safe even when rear-ended. Being rear ended is not the opposite of being in a front end collision, crash dynamics-wise. It's not that front end collisions are the most common, it is that they are more dangerous than being rear ended. (generally speaking. There are exceptions to everything). The most dangerous type of accident is side impact. Rear facing has been shown to be safer in these collisions as well. Being able to sit up well has nothing to do with being safe forward facing. What's important is a child's bones. Until they have ossified they are much more vulnerable in a forward facing position. I'm a tech and have devoted countless hours to the subject of child passenger safety. There's a reason why guidelines are changing. We know better, we do better.

Yes. I bought the mp3 from amazon: http://www.amazon.com/States-and-Capitals-Songs/dp/B002BIKI5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346729837&sr=8-1&keywords=states+and+capitals+songs

DD doesn't know them yet (only 4yo), but I just bought States and Capitals Songs from amazon. The songs are VERY catchy. I've only listened to one of the capitals songs but I now know all those capitals. Sadly I did not know them all before. Geography is not my strong point. I also memorized the east coast states song after just a couple times through. I used to get Vermont and NH mixed up, or all the small ones. But with that song now I can go straight up the coast and know them in order.

No, I don't have to put it through more than once. It's a scotch laminator. Maybe your heater is going out? How old is it?

We met a lovely mom and daughter in DD4's mom and tot music class when she was about 2.5. The other little girl is about a year younger. I get along great with the mom and over the last almost two years we've become very good friends. I absolutely love her little girl, she's the sweetest thing. And she likes my DD. but the girls fight like crazy!!! They both say they like each other and both are excited when told they get to see the other that day. But they can't get along long enough for us to have anything resembling a normal playdate. As much as we want them to figure out how to get along, we're going to scale back on trying and she's going to come over sometimes when her DD is at preschool. :( Hopefully it is their ages and this phase doesn't last. They are so cute together when they're not screaming.

Planetboxes! I have wanted a pair of these for me and DD for ages!

DD4 can tell you where every single toy, stuffed animal, book, and item of clothing came from. She can tell you who got it for her, when, and why. Including every sock and fast food toy. Back to at least her second birthday, sometimes things from even before that but with less accuracy on the "when". Somehow she can't seem to remember what I told her to do two minutes ago, though!

DD is 4. I've never asked but from what I can tell they color a bible story related picture and watch things like veggie tales and play.